Process for preparing a sugar coating on an irregular shaped confection

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a process for forming a hard sugar coating on an irregularly shaped chocolate confection which tapers into a pointed tip on said confection on a non-base portion thereof, which comprises forming a rounded contour on the base thereof and applying at least two coating syrups and preferably three coating syrups onto the surface of the confections under specific conditions and optionally polishing said confection. The present invention is also directed to the product formed from the process.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention is directed to a process for hard panning a bite sized irregular shaped confection with sugar to produce a sugar coated irregularly shaped confection and to the coated confectionery product obtained from the process.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Coated confectioneries, panning and particularly sugar shelled confectioneries have long been known. For example, Hershey-ets® chocolates are chocolate centers with sugar shell coatings. Other examples include Nestle's Smarties®, M&M's® chocolate candies and the like. All of these confections have hard coatings of sugar covering the chocolate center.[0003]The process for coating centers of confectioneries, e.g., chocolate centers, is known as panning. The equipment that is typically used in this process consists of a motor-driven, revolving, open-mouthed pan, which is usually cylindrical or pear shaped. The formed center material, e.g., the chocolate, is placed in the pan and when the pan ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0041]Another embodiment of the present invention is directed to a process of preventing the doubling of confectionery pieces having a flat bottom resulting from sugar coa...

Problems solved by technology

But, these techniques have not been used heretofore to coat irregularly shaped bite size confections, e.g., bite size chocolates, i.e., a chocolate shape which contains at least one point on the non-base area thereof or has at least one tapered area that culminates in a point, e.g., a conical shape, such as for example, Hershey's Kisses® chocolates.

Unfortunately, it is not a simple application of these techniques to coat an irregularly shaped bite sized confections.

There are many problems which required ingenuity to overcome in order to hard pan such irregularly shaped chocolate centers.

It is to be understood that sugar coating is effected utilizing a supersaturated sugar solution which is maintained at a temperature which is much greater than the melting point of chocolate, i.e., 37° C. Thus, too high a temperature may result in the melting of the chocolate center unless the proper conditions are utilized.

If it is too fast or too slow, the result will be an uneven application of the coating.

A sugar syrup of too low a solids content also results in the degradation of the sugar crystal layers buildup on the pointed tip.

The lack of a sugar shell layer on the pointed tip is visually and functionally unacceptable.

Furthermore, a sugar syrup with too high a solids concentration can prematu...

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